Jon DiMaggio, Chief Security Strategist at Analyst1, shares with Help Net Security tips for how to make a healthcare system more resistant to ransomware attacks. These include adopting security best practices and sharing attack information. 

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations need to access current information within patient records to provide care, so they are more likely to pay a ransom to avoid delays that could endanger lives. (And with the advent of COVID-19, quickly restoring systems and access to patients’ information has become even more important.)

There are, of course, other factors that play a role in the attackers’ preference for healthcare-related targets: the talent shortage for cybersecurity experts with healthcare expertise, the fact that most healthcare employees still don’t make cybersecurity a priority, the fact that many of the devices and technologies they use run on antiquated operating systems – to name just a few.

There might come a time when cybersecurity becomes a (small) part of medical curriculums—in the meantime healthcare organizations can significantly lower the number of successful attacks with the proper defenses and training, DiMaggio notes.

Read more at Help Net Security